Kevin Hartnell

Small Town Boy.

Kevin Hartnell grew up in a tiny town of approximately 150 people. The town had a school, gas station, post office, grain elevator, and a funeral home. His uncle taught music at the local school and started him on his musical journey with the following quote “You’re gonna play drums or I’ll break your neck.” This may have been inspired by the fact that his uncle was a drummer as was his grandfather. After a few years of learning how to play drums, his first professional gig arrived shortly after turning the age of 12. By 15, he was a session musician at a recording studio in a nearby city. After working with various local bands, the call of the road took over. He relocated from Illinois to Indiana, followed by moves to Tennessee and Ohio where he currently resides.

His love for horror films and audio drama was the primary inspiration for learning how to write music. Starting off on an old Amiga 500 computer, he began creating music “mods” with a tracker program as well as learning how to sample and edit digital audio. This was the spark that began the lifelong obsession with synthesizers and writing music over the next 30 years. The first complete collection of original tracks was released in 1999, which subsequently kick-started the indie label, Overlook Hotel Records.

Overlook Hotel Records.

Overlook Hotel Records was founded in 1999 in Cincinnati, Ohio by Kevin Hartnell with a focus on Electronic Rock and Dark Wave/Dark Ambient music.